Just when you thought we were all painted out on Monday, I’m back with another painting update. With this bun of ours arriving in five short weeks, it’s lighting a “paint all the things!” fire under my rear. I know that being laid up with a c-section will mean staring at all of the not-done things on the ol’ to-do list, so humming through a few of them before the little man is here will hopefully put my nesting slash home-making mind at ease. So we set our sights on the upstairs hallway.

It connects so many rooms (the nursery, our room, the hall bath, Clara’s room, the guest room, the laundry, etc) that we thought it would be a nice “bang for our buck” spot in the sense that we walk through it ten million times a day, so we’d notice a nice fresh paint job.

You know, instead of seeing the same over-sprayed edges from painting the trim back in May of last year (has it really been that long?!).

It also connects to the stairwell that we painted back in November, and the foyer that we painted last July. So when we picked that color for the foyer (Edgecomb Gray, which reads more like a soft tan color in our house then an actual gray), we selected it knowing that it would travel up the stairs and eventually grace the hallway up there as well. We like that it’s a simple and light neutral, so it won’t make the stairs or that interior hallway feel dark, and it allows us to use a bunch of other colors in adjoining rooms without worrying that they’ll clash. For example, we have coral, blue, red, and soft pink on the walls (and ceiling) of Clara’s room…

Meanwhile, the walls of the guest room, laundry nook, and hall bathroom up there have yet to be painted… so we also like that the hall color leaves those wide open.

You can actually see where our stairway paint job ended in this pic. Elegant, eh? Look at that line we just randomly painted on the ceiling. That thing cracked me up and irked me all at the same time.

The hallway is sort of like two or three rooms of its own. It’s 33 feet from the laundry nook to our master bedroom, and there are a whole lotta doorways (eight) and lights (three) to cut in around. I don’t usually mind cutting in too much though. It’s tedious, but it makes me feel accomplished if that makes sense. As I go I’m all “three doorways down, five to go – turtle power!” I also ponder things like why mashed potatoes and milkshakes have so many calories while things like celery and water have virtually none. Or why there’s not one cheat day each year when everyone can magically consume anything they want and not gain any weight. My pregnant mind clearly puts a lot of thought into food.

Clara also got in the action. Not by painting, but by lending positive vibes, singing various Frozen songs, and dancing around with a giant piece of ribbon like a tiny color guard.

All told, it was around five hours of cutting in across two days (it took two coats) and John swooped in to do the rolling, which also took two coats but went quite a bit faster (maybe three hours total across two days?). I thought of a few painting tips to share with you guys as I went, so here they are:

Even if you can reach up and roll the high parts without an extension pole, it’s a lot easier on the ol’ back if you break one out.

We painted the ceiling the same color as the walls since it’s a light color and we wanted that seamless look instead of accenting the ceiling as a separate plane in this case (we also tend to do that in bathrooms).

Try painting with some tunes on to make it go faster (or news radio, or a book on tape, or a tiny dancing preschooler, or some other auditory form of entertainment).

A short handled 2″ angled brush is my favorite cutting in weapon. Seriously, read the comments on this old post of yesteryear to see how many people commented that it changed their life. I promise I’m not exaggerating – it’s a huge time saver.

We don’t use a dropcloth over hardwoods because seven years of painting have made us pretty neat, and we’ve found that the occasional floor drip is easy enough to wipe up if it’s wet or even pop off with your fingernail if it’s dry.

Stop thinking about food. It’s weird.

And here’s our wahoo-it’s-done result:

It’s a pretty dramatic update from what it looked like back when we bought the house.

Here’s the freshly painted result from the other side (with my back to the bedroom). Ugh, I can’t wait to rehang some doors to block our dark little laundry area in the back.

But the view of pretty much everything else is looking a whole lot fresher…

… so we’re really glad we knocked it out pre-Barnacle.

For anyone looking for a tutorial on changing out your outlets, John did a giant infographic about it here. And for here’s a how-I-cut-in-without-taping-most-things-off video, from back when we were painting our guest room:

Before I go I thought I’d share all the paint colors we’ve used in our house to date (along with four that we’re thinking about adding). It’s fun to compare it to our first whole-house-palette post for this house to see how many are the same, how many are close but not exact, and how many have changed since that was just a bunch of guesses about where we thought we were headed last July.

Here’s the key to what’s what:

Our Bedroom (Black Pepper)

Our Kitchen (Nelson Blue)

Foyer/Hall (Edgecomb Gray)

Possible Nursery Accent Color? (Grassy Fields)

Nursery Built-Ins (Senora Gray)

Nursery Walls (Going To The Chapel)

Clara’s Door (Cinco De Mayo)

Clara’s Ceiling (Pink Cadillac)

Clara’s Walls & Half Bathroom (Simply White)

Clara’s Raindrop Color #1 (Tranquil Blue)

Clara’s Raindrop Color #2 (Milano Red)

Clara’s Raindrop Color #3 (Pink Cadillac)

Front Door (Blue Lake)

Master Closet & Sink Nook (Revere Pewter)

Sunroom Ceiling (In Your Eyes)

Possible Dining Room Color? (Knoxville Gray)

Possible Guest Room Color? (Sparrow)

Possible Office Color? (Polar Lights)

* not pictured: possible colors for the hall bathroom, the laundry nook, and the unfinished storage space since we don’t have a clue about those yet

Are any of you guys also on a painting bender? Or just rushing to check other things off before an impending deadline? I gotta say, I slept like a baby after all that edging, and I’m usually an insomniac these days, so it was pretty sweet.

460 Comments

If it’s ok with you, I am going to show this post to my husband to back up my argument that we simply HAVE to redo our kitchen before we have children. Because otherwise I will be sitting at home and stewing about our nasty kitchen tile instead of focusing on raising a human. That was the point of this post, right? ;)

I’ll back up your argument! We waited to remodel our kitchen, and then had twins. So when they were two, we realized it was now or have to move. We had to move into my father-in-laws for nearly two months while our kitchen and dining room were completely gutted and re-done into one large eat-in kitchen. The results were amazing, but those were the two most stressful months ever, on all of us. My kids didn’t sleep at.all and it was exhausting. So-long story short, do what you can now!!

I agree with the “do what you can now” mantra! When I was pregnant with our first we remodeled our kitchen, and with our second we had already learned our lesson, so we remodeled two bathrooms, installed wood flooring and refinished 3 flights of steps. Those types of projects are nearly impossible with a newborn, and even a toddler, so do them now while you still can!

I have your back too! We just painted and freshened up our kitchen and ajoining den. It was on my priority list even ahead of our nursery, because I knew it was now or never… and our kitchen was a 1950s nightmare (complete with wood paneling)! We used John and Sherry’s suggestions for painting wood paneling and it turned out amazing. Huge improvement for the baby’s sake and everyone else, too!

I will back you up! We just redid ours with 3 kids (6,3, & 7months) – it was awful! Wish we could have moved out during the process. We now have to paint – which is another huge job that I am leaving for over spring break! Good luck – it is fun to get the kitchen you always wanted!

I like the idea of a calorie-free day each year. I’ve always been a believer that everyone should get at least one “free” food. Like when you turn 18, you get to decide what one food that you eat has no calories. I’ve given this a lot of thought, and, for myself, I’ve settled on milkshakes. (I decided that the general category of “ice cream” was perhaps too generous.) I haven’t found anyone who thinks this is a bad idea….

I have heard that calories do not count if its on the weekends… or if you eat off of someone else’s plate – those are their calories, not yours! So let John order dessert… and you can eat off his plate… all the cookie dough you and the barnacle desire!

Sherry if you like cookie dough you’ll love this stuff…http://www.thecookiedoughcafe.com/
They are a company that sells cookie dough in a jar (without eggs so no worries about salmonella)that’s meant to be eaten as dough. You can buy it a Fresh Market. A friend of mine sent me a jar to try and it’s bananas good…(I may or may not have licked the spoon repeatedly).

Looks so clean, that’s what I love about a fresh coat of paint. Since I’m the painter in the family, I rarely do ceilings as I am unable to control and extension pole and can only paint 3 square feet before having to move the ladder. (Though I will say I never use tape or drop cloths, I do have some skills.) Did you have 2 different finishes of paint or do you put satin on the ceiling? Or flat on the walls?

Love it! I’ve also been on a painting binge before our June baby comes (thankfully, I’ve mostly gotten others to paint for me during pregnancy). We moved into our apartment last summer and did half of the painting right away. The baby room and some little hallway areas have been languishing.

This past week, one of our maintenance guys had time to paint the baby room and hallways, so that’s all done. All we have left are closets. For some reason, a previous occupant painted every single closet awful colors (yellow, lime green, etc). We have two closets left to paint, but they’re our biggest, so we’ll see what we can get done.

I’m chipping away at two connected hallways with eight doors! It also has eight pantry doors I framed out to match the cabinets and paint sucking beadboard on the lower two thirds…it’s a slow process with three kids and three dogs helping out. The change is totally worth it, from dark green and tan and tan ceilings to white with a dull sort of turquoise on top and white ceilings. It so Bright! Just glad I don’t have a timeline :)

I still can’t believe you don’t use a dropcloth. We didn’t use one when we repainted our bedroom (to orange!), figuring we could easily wipe or scrape away any drips etc (we previously had a sort of mottled color carpet and never worried about it at all, but this was post laminate hardwood install).

Well, there are tiiiiiiny splatters of orange all around the perimeter of the room now, and because our laminate hardwood has a slight texture, it’s virtually impossible to scrape off (all tools fail, and only my fingernails work…which would take um forever and hurts!). Sadface, and I have no idea how we’ll ever fix it. You don’t get those tiny splatters from rolling walls? It’s also evident on our white trim (which we had not planned on repainting, but now could use a fresh and splatter-free coat).

Oh no that stinks! We don’t get any little splatters like that around the floor, but maybe you have textured walls? Ours are flat. John also subscribes to the less-is-more paint on the roller technique (more paint = more drips & it can splatter).

Maybe you have posted this before – but what type of rollers do you use? Aren’t there different types I’ve heard?! Foam or something…
(beginner shyly raises hand to ask question with the hopes that “there are no stupid questions”)

Magic eraser didn’t seem to work (and would also be sooooo teeeediousssssss) when I tried it before. I have read that paint thinner may work, but I haven’t tried that bc paint thinner seems so scary! lol. It’s a small, furniture-filled room, so it will be a super pain to fix and I just keep trying to ignore it :/. We also need to repaint the trim again because of the splatters.

We have painted a ton, but it was previously always over some old, mottled-color beigey berber carpet that we knew we were getting rid of, so we didn’t really sweat the drips/splatter. Totally regret not covering the edges or the floor now, so I def recommend others cover at least the edges if there is any question or if their flooring is textured. Better safe than sorry!

Do you not even get some paint splatter like back on your hand? I feel like there is always *some* splatter, no matter what!

Weirdly enough we don’t really get splatter anywhere except sometimes a tiny drop on John’s face like a freckle or something if he’s painting a ceiling (not a bunch, just one weird one where something might flick off the roller). Of course we get a few floor drips too that we wipe off, but nothing like a fine mist or smattering that leaves a bunch of spots in one place. Hmm, one other thing could be the type of paint. If it’s thinner/cheaper it might spray more and maybe since we have been using thicker stuff for the last few years that helps too?

I ALWAYS get the paint mist on my hand, even with high quality sherwin williams paint! So for that reason, I cover the floors. Usually just with a few pieces of newspaper that I slide along the floor so it moves with me (instead of spending time doing the whole floor). It does get on the floor if I don’t. If I ever did a ceiling (we painted ours before flooring was installed), I’d for sure cover the whole thing! Now I’m wondering why John and Sherry don’t get the mist because it sounds like we’re using the same products and same smooth walls.

I am also mystified (see what I did there??). Please just have John come paint my house so we can compare?? We’ve used lots of different rollers, paint types, etc. It always seems to happen (we just didn’t care with the carpet and figured it would be an easy wipe up fix with the hardwood, and underestimated how MUCH there would be since it wasn’t as obvious with carpet). Happens to both my husband and I, seemingly no matter about speed or pressure (does John go SOOOO SLOOOOW? I wanna see video now!).

Using a newspaper or old towel and dragging it along with you sounds like a good idea – thanks, Allison!

I don’t see how you can say you don’t get splatters when painting when John is wearing clothing that clearly has paint splatters on it. ???

Even if you don’t generally have an issue with drips or whatever, it still seems more than a little cavalier to not protect the nice flooring. Anyone can have a fumble, a slip, and drop a roller or whatever.

We get the occasional big drips that we can wipe off the floor or pop off with our fingernails as we mentioned in the post, but we don’t get the thin mist/splatters that people are asking about (if we did we’d cover the floors since removing them later is a huge pain). Most of the marks on our painting clothes are from wiping our hands if we stick our thumb in paint or if we’re caulking in them and want to wipe something off, so they’re not those small splatter marks people are chatting about here.

Color me what??? on this one. I can not believe that you painted that much ceiling without a drop cloth on a brand new floor. And didn’t have any droplets anywhere (including on John). My husband, who is a VERY experienced painter (and very talented at it!) even has drops sometimes. (Yes we have flat walls, BM paint, the right rollers, and a very steady hand). I don’t know why you would fib on this one, but I think you are sending the wrong message to people who believe everything you say and emulate what you do. It doesn’t hurt to admit that these thing happen to everyone, not just people outside Petersik-land.

We definitely have drops sometimes. Right in this post I said “we’ve found that the occasional floor drip is easy enough to wipe up if it’s wet or even pop off with your fingernail if it’s dry.” If a method is messy/doesn’t work as well as we’d like it to, we’ll tell ya (see Monday’s post about using our paint sprayer), but this has been our method for years. Here’s a time lapse video of us painting our last house’s bedroom and another one of us painting our old kitchen’s walls & beams where you can see there’s no floor protection and there aren’t a bunch of drips on us or the ground. We’ve also said we’ll share a video of John’s rolling technique when we paint the office, which should put any paint conspiracies to rest ;)

I generally don’t tape edges or cover my floor either and have never had a problem with mist. However, a few weeks ago I painted a chalkboard wall in my kitchen and got mist all over my baseboard and floor. Maybe it was my roller or maybe the consistency of the paint was different this time, but I was super bummed. Luckily, I used a fine steel wool pad (just a box of “soap pads” from the Dollar store)and gently wiped the floor (which is a solid sheet of linoleum). All paint speckles came right off. I probably would not recommend this method for hardwoods but maybe it would be ok on laminate? Maybe test it on a spot that can be hidden if it makes any scratches? Unfortunately, this steel wool did not take the splatters off ob my baseboard, so I am going to have to repaint that.

As an avid reader of your blog and a professional painter for twenty five years, I just want to chime in and say you would NEVER catch a professional painting without a drop cloth. I use only high quality paint and paint in upscale homes and wouldn’t want you to send the wrong message to your devoted readers. John is the exception, not the rule.

This post is so timely for me! We are getting ready to paint our kitchen in Edgecomb Gray. I’ve thought about painting the ceiling the same color as the walls – our kitchen is cut-off from the rest of the house so the kitchen ceiling does not run into other rooms.

Does anyone have thoughts about whether I should paint the ceiling Edgecomb Gray too? I’m thinking yes since its a lighter color and a smaller room…..

Husbands love us (she says sarcastically). John usually apologizes to other guys when we meet them out after wives say “your site gave me the idea to do ___!” It’s pretty funny actually. One guy at the state fair told us “you’re the reason I was stenciling for two days.” Haha!

Haha! I am so happy I’m not the only one who uses the site as a catalyst to get my husband to do things. We’re gearing up to buy our first house this spring/summer, and I have a desktop folder called “Things You Will Build and I Will Paint.” :)

hahahaha my husband just rolls his eyes too now when I tell him what John and Sherry did today :) He doesn’t hate it as much as he wants me to believe, but I think he sometimes does wish you guys would slow down lol. We are due for our first baby around the time Sherry is due, so my nesting phase is hitting pretty hard. He went to Chicago with me to meet you guys on your book tour and thought you were both super nice :)

Have to admit my husband refers to you guys as Old House Hate, because of how much I talk about you guys. :-) Although, last weekend, he admitted to loving my trash can makeover thanks to you guys. Keep up the good work.

Phew! So glad I am not the only one. To accurately imagine the way I start conversations with my husband, call to your memory Alison Hannigan in American Pie saying “So this one time, at band camp…” and replace it with me saying “So hubby, you know YHL, well they…” I may have also quoted Clara on occasion.

I’m jealous of your painting prowess without taping / dropcloth-ing. I wish my husband and I had reached that skill level and maybe our bedroom would be painted by now.

I had a question about cutting in – do you worry much about the time between your cutting in a section and John rolling it? As in, do those steps need to be nearly simultaneous for the paint to look seamless?

Looks fantastic!!! I too, am painting like a mad woman…not because of impending birth :)…just the promise of spring and the thought of being outside. After THIS winter (Minnesota), I won’t be going back indoors, willingly, after it warms up…ever… I mean it! Today, another bathroom gets a new coat!

John, how do you manage to paint the ceiling without a drop cloth and not make a giant mess? I painted our entryway ceiling and ended up having to scrape a million tiny dots of paint off the hardwood. It took forever!

That sucks! We don’t get any little splatters but maybe you have textured walls or ceilings? Ours are flat. John also subscribes to the less-is-more paint on the roller technique (more paint = more drips & it can splatter).

I think most people get splatters when they have too much paint on the roller and/or are rolling too fast, which ups the centrifugal force and causes the paint to spray off the roller in a fine splatter. If you get big blogs of spatter, you’ve got too much paint on the roller. If you’ve got tons of teeny-tiny droplets of paint everywhere, you’re rolling too fast.

It always feels great to check off one more thing from the ol’ to-do list. Good job guys!

While you guys seem to have the paintbrush welded to your arm I have to ask if you guys are also planning on painting all the trimwork (and beams) in the living room before the barnacle arrives. I know you guys mentioned that you have plans for the ceiling and potentially knocking down the wall between the kitchen – so maybe you’ll wait to do it all at once? I know that it it was my house, I’d be awfully tempted to paint it now…white and bright just makes such a huge difference in the space!

Either way, you guys are doing a fabulous job with your house. It must be very rewarding for you guys to look at the before pictures and to see how you’ve brought the ol’ house back to life. I’m really enjoying following you guys along this journey! :)

I don’t think we’ll get to that before the bun, but we’d love to at least lose the remaining blue trim (it’s only in the dining room now). We can’t wait to lighten up the living room and open it to the kitchen someday though!

1. I’ve watched your cutting in video a few times, and for the life of me, I cannot make it that easy. Paint always builds up at the edge of the brush and spills onto the trim. Regardless, I still manage to get her done, but while your lines appear nice and straight, mine have this endearing wobble.

2. How the heck do you manage to avoid roller spray, especially when painting the ceiling?! I could roll it out on the tray until it’s bone dry, but the second it hits the wall, I (and sometimes the floor) get a nice misting.

As for your first note, have you tried a short handled angled brush instead of one with a longer handle? That seems to stabilize my hand a lot more. It also could just be over time that you’ll get steadier (I was a lot wobblier in the first few years but got better over time). For the roller spray question, maybe we should make a video of how John applies the paint and rolls. We don’t get any little splatters but we have flat walls, so that might be something to note. John also subscribes to the less-is-more paint on the roller technique (more paint = more drips & it can splatter).

I think I’ve figured out why my cutting in is never as awesome as yours, Sherry – I mean, aside from you being the cutting-in world champion, haha. I usually do both the cutting in and the painting, alternating them as I go. When I start out, my cutting in looks good, but as soon as I start rolling, I can’t get a steady hand on my next round of cutting in anymore, because of the strain on my hand from rolling. Does that make sense? At lease that’s what I tell myself to make me feel better, haha!

That completely makes sense! I know some people who do cutting in one day, rolling the next, then cutting in the next, then roll that last coat. It’s spread over a long time, but it might keep your arm from feeling like jelly!

Sherry you crack me up :)
When I was pregnant I was sick the whole 40 weeks. Like pukey don’t want to eat anything but I have to because I’m shaky sick. The only time I didn’t feel nauseated was when I was sleeping. I had the BEST dreams, in which I would eat everything I couldn’t hold down during the day. Every night I had food dreams- feasting ;)
The nausea lifted literally the hour after my csection. I actually gained weight after she was born, because it was so good to feel “good” hungry again. All for a good cause!

I am so on a painting bender, trying to knock out my guest room. I went to go paint the doors yesterday and all of a sudden the old paint started peeling off in huge (although not complete – of course) sheets. Primer is not just for fun, previous homeowners! So now I get to strip the door and start over. But I’ll get there! Your hallway looks gorgeous – it reminds me that all my painting will be worth it!

Sounds like you are putting latex paint over oil paint? You can put oil over latex without a primer but not the other way around (just like oil in the pan keeps food from sticking I guess). In addition to proper paint adhesion, priming with a tinted primes is the only way to guarantee you end up with the color on the paint swatch. Our local big box DIY store used to have a great demonstration board up showing a red paint applied in various ways: one and two coats directly on white paint, and one and two coats on tinted primer. The only one that matched the sample was two coats of paint on tinted primer. All the others ended up slightly pink.

Your color palette for this house is looking so pretty! And the three “rooms yet to be painted” possibilities look great with everything else. It’s fun to see them all together like that. Looks very cohesive!

About

Hey, we're Sherry & John. This is where we chronicled 7 years of our lives as we fixed up 3 homes, had 2 children, became accidental authors and product designers, and shared our adventures (and misadventures) with the world. Now it's a time capsule of sorts, complete with nearly 3,000 posts, projects, and updates.